WOOLWORTH THEATRE

Sitting proudly as a registered historic site in the Fifth Avenue Historic District of Nashville for its role in the Civil Rights movement, the former Woolworth building has recently been repurposed as an event venue and theatre, with a capacity of 750. Back in 2021, country music artist Chuck Wicks and partners 615 Ventures and investor and entrepreneur Rob Bellenfant acquired the building, with a view to turning into a Las Vegas-inspired space which could host music, acrobatics performances and comedy acts for the people of Nashville.

Enlisting locally based AV company S&L Integrated to design the venue’s audio system, an EAW Anna ADAPTive system from Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW) was designed by Account Executive, Nathan Tomberlin and his team, with a DiGiCo SD12T console chosen for control.

The building’s notoriety stemmed from a landmark day in 1960, when a group of students began a non-violent movement at the dining counter of the Woolworth store to challenge the then enforced racial segregation. They seated themselves at the counter and refused to leave until they were served.

The resulting violent backlash, as well as the ensuing national and international media coverage, helped reinforce the nascent equalrights movement.

Now, after the transformation of the building – which included Wicks working with the Tennessee State Museum to honour its history and preserve the original storefront marquee – the venue functions as a multipurpose theatre.

When it came to the audio solution, Tomberlin knew that it wasn’t going to be straightforward from the moment he walked into the room. “From a sound design perspective, the room is very challenging,” he commented. “It has a very low and shallow balcony — from the stage to the back wall it’s only about 40ft deep. Rather than a traditional theatre which is long and narrow, this is the complete opposite. We also had the presence of glass in the balcony, which we could not touch due to the building’s historical status, so with that we knew we were going to have to throw back the audio and needed a system that could keep all our anticipated reflection issues to a minimum. I immediately thought about the Anna ADAPTive system from EAW.”

Tomberlin and his team designed a system featuring those loudspeakers in order for the sound to be directed away from the balcony face.

“We would still have audio coming towards the stage, but it provided a big enough dip or contrast to absolve the reflections that would cause a problem,” he confirmed. “In addition, since the room was being used for various other concerts and events, we needed to design a system that could not just cater to vocal performance, but also operate at up to 105dB with a country band in the room.

“It’s a very good feeling when the design and the actual measurements are spot on, as was the case for this project. We needed a pro rig, and the Annas provided that.”

The new EAW PA system installed at the theatre features six Anna boxes, with three speakers discreetly placed behind cut-outs on each side of the stage. Also included in the new system were JF60Zs for front fills, four SBX218s for subs under the stage, MKD1064s for side fill, MKD1026s for the outer balcony. RSX12M are utilised as floor monitors while UXA4410 DSP amplifiers driving the fronts and the out fills.

Although this project marked the first time using EAW’s ADAPTive PA, Tomberlin was familiar with the brand. “I had heard EAW’s ADAPTive products before and I knew that no one manages audio coverage like they do. EAW is really the only one that does it on a large scale and does it well. What made it even easier is that John Mills, whom I had worked with in the past, was now working at EAW. Also, HWPco had picked up EAW as an AV systems partner in the area, so all the pieces fell into place perfectly and the decision to go with EAW was a no brainer.”

The audio is run over Dante through a DiGiCo SD12T digital console, which was carefully chosen by Tomberlin, who admitted they tried to balance the combination of high-performing technology with cost effectiveness when choosing products and systems.

“This was going to be a sizable theatre in downtown Nashville, used for house shows and additional promoted events. We wanted to make sure that everything was rider-friendly so that any touring show or artist would feel comfortable walking in and performing without the need to bring in outside lights and sound for concerts,” he explained. “That meant a brand like DiGiCo for sound – a platform that the industry is already familiar with and liked. The SD12T with the theatrical license was the perfect choice as it checked all the boxes.”

The console check those boxes in other ways, as well, as its compact form factor and footprint allowed it to occupy a small space in the theatre that didn’t sacrifice seats or operator functionality.

In addition, with the house PA and wireless microphone systems both using a Dante network, the SD12T was able to interface with that via an Appsys ProAudio Flexiverter, chosen by Tomberlin as a format-conversion interface between those platforms and the MADI-enabled desk. But both Tomberlin and Hayden Chipley, Technical Director and FOH Engineer at the venue, cited DiGiCo’s customer support as perhaps the console’s greatest strength. Noting one system glitch early in the installation, Tomberlin recalled that DiGiCo’s tech-support team not only had a new desk sent over the same day, but had a tech onsite to patch it in and had it ready for that evening’s performances. “They white-gloved the entire thing,” he said. “They’re not just supporting a product; they’re supporting a brand, and that’s what a customer wants to see.”

For Chipley, one major aspect behind choosing the desk was its dual functionality. “We chose the SD12T because it can handle theatrical and music production equally well,” stated Chipley. “It was important that we had a desk that could do both, with plenty of worksurface area, and yet also have a compact form factor and footprint to maximise the available space without compromising power and features.”

The venue hosted its first original production, Shiners, created by and co-starring Wicks, after it opened last October. “The SD12T is playing an important part in making the Woolworth Theatre an important venue in Nashville,” said Chipley.

There are good reasons for that. Chipley cited the SD12T’s ease of setting up and modifying EQ and dynamics profiles for each character in each production. “Even for understudies, which isn’t the easiest thing to do usually,” he explained. “You can make a copy of a profile and then edit it to perfectly fit any actor, even on short notice.”

He also cited how streamlined the snapshot process is on the console, as well as its workflow flexibility. “There are a ton of useful tools on it,” he said. “And I used all of them on Shiners, which combines dialogue, music and comedy. It’s a diverse show and the console handles it easily. And once another show joins the space we can swap profiles and snapshots between them instantly.”

When it came to the venue’s lights, Tomberlin worked with long-time Lighting Designer Peter Morse who had designed the lighting system, and had to make minor changes to what was specified because some of the equipment came in over budget. However, one item where no expense was spared was the choice of console.

“We put in a grandMA3 compact lighting console because it’s the industry standard,” said Tomberlin. “Again, as with the choice of the DiGiCo desk, we wanted to make sure that everything that we put into the venue is a well-known product to the industry, so that any country artist that comes through the door can take over the system using equipment that they are very likely to be familiar with.”

Behind the stage sits a 21.5ft by 11.5ft LED wall supplied by local manufacturer Uber Displays, which features a 2.6mm pixel pitch, and is fed content that can be scaled pixel to pixel to match the 2496 by 1344 custom resolution by a Resolume Arena media server. While no projects of this type are completed without the occasional hitch, Tomberlin sites that supply chain issues were the main challenges to overcome. “We had to work really closely with the manufacturers that we partnered with to keep on top of any problems that arose because of that,” he said. “That was probably the most stressful thing about the whole project.”

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